Hillary Clinton would be on course for a landslide victory over Mitt Romney, with a lead five points larger than Barack Obama's, if she was on the ballot paper instead of the president in Tuesday's US election, according to a poll.

The survey by YouGov (pdf),
shown exclusively to the Guardian, has the secretary of state beating
Romney by 51% to 45% among likely voters. Obama leads Romney by 48% to
47%.

YouGov estimates that Clinton's lead would translate into a
massive victory in the electoral college, by 347 to 191 votes. The
polling company, which surveys regularly in the US, believes Clinton
would win both Florida and North Carolina, states that it projects Obama
to lose.

The findings are likely to add to the clamour for
Clinton to seek the presidency in 2016, when she would be the
frontrunner for her party's nomination.

An officer suffered a minor injury Tuesday after shooting himself in
the leg during an accident at the Fullerton Police Department's shooting
range, authorities said.
The officer was undergoing the department's monthly qualifications at
the range in the basement of the Fullerton Police Department when his
weapon "accidently discharged," Sgt. Jeff Stuart said.

The officer suffered a "minor injury to the right leg," Stuart said,
and was taken to a hospital as a precaution. The officer was expected to
be released Tuesday night.

"He was alert and talking and obviously somewhat embarrassed about the whole thing," Stuart said.

"When his weapon accidentally discharged," did you get that? It was the gun's fault. This is how the so-called liberal press conspires with gun owners to downplay the individual responsibility of negligent discharges.

It would be naive to assume that people who do this kind of thing are making their first negligent action ever. No, the incidents that come to the public attention are usually not the first. Unless people who do this kind of thing are disarmed, these incidents will not be their last.

A Pennsylvania man who apparently shot a young relative after mistaking her costume for a skunk has been ordered to stand trial on charges of assault and reckless endangerment.

Police said the girl was in a black costume with a white feather or tassel on her hat during a Halloween party at a New Sewickley home on Oct. 20.
The Beaver County Times reported investigators said the girl was lying face down and motionless during a game of hide-and-seek when she was shot.

Grant's attorney called the shooting a "tragic accident." He said he'll ask to have the charges dismissed.

What do you predict, guilty to a lesser charge and keep the guns? That's my bet.

Jose
Rivera, 31, was charged Monday with criminal possession of a weapon and
reckless endangerment.

Police found Rivera bleeding from a wound in his
left hand after responding just after midnight to a reported gunshot
victim at 32 Starr Avenue. Rivera told officers he had been shot at
another location.

The officers quickly determined it was accidental and
then found a loaded .380-caliber handgun wrapped in a plastic bag under
the car in the driveway. Police say Rivera did not have a pistol permit
to legally possess the gun.

Some of the pro-gun folks pretend to not understand what I mean by "hidden criminal." It's convenient for them to divide the world of gun owners into "good guys" and "bad guys." I guess simple minds need simple ideas to believe in.

Officers responded to a home at 9050 Tarlton Rd., Lot B in Stoutsville Thursday at 3:26 p.m.When they arrived, deputies found a man disabled by a gunshot wound
to the upper body and unable to speak because of his injuries.

While investigating the shooting and processing the scene, deputies
reported locating a large indoor garden of marijuana inside the victim’s
home. A search warrant allowed a more thorough look through the house and
deputies reported finding two growing rooms with 302 plants weighing a
total of eight pounds. They seized the plants as well as currency and
firearms.

Taken into custody was another resident of the house, Stanley L.
Crosby, 51, who was charged with possession of marijuana, cultivation of
marijuana and trafficking in marijuana. All charges were felonies,
according to a release from Sheriff Dave Phalen’s office.

The shooting victim may also face criminal charges related to the
plants, but his name will not be released until charges are filed.

I suppose they might get around to charging the wounded guy, but not for his gun negligence.

Danny
McDaniel brought a handgun to 11 Avalon Street where a group of
acquaintances were playing cards and accidentally fired it through his
left hand and another man’s right hip, Clarksville Police Spokesman Jim Knoll Said.Police
found drug and drug paraphernalia at the residence and the gun was
removed before police arrived, Knoll said. An officer and a police
service dog located the gun near Charlemagne and Sevier streets,
according to the release.Stacey
Gray, 28, who gave a 11 Avalon Street address, was charged with cocaine
possession for resale and unlawful drug paraphernalia. Her bond was set
at $5,500.Knoll said additional charges are pending from an ongoing investigation.

I suppose they'll get around to charging the shooter, not so much for gun negligence as for hanging around with the wrong crowd.

Authorities say four people have been shot and wounded during a Halloween party on the University of Southern California campus.

Capt. David Carlisle of the USC Department of Public Safety says two people were detained following the shooting shortly before midnight Wednesday.
Los Angeles police say the four victims were rushed to hospitals after the shooting at Tutor Campus Center.

According to KNBC, Assistant Chief John Thomas of the USC Department of Public Safety says a dispute between 2 non-students led to the shooting.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the violence occurred outside the party attended by about 100 people.

Police then declared the campus "shut down" and issued an alert urging students to remain indoors.
Campus police did not provide any details on the two people who were detained.

Too bad a few of the other party-goers weren't armed too. They could have added to the fun.

Hailey Hodges is the oldest daughter of Cassia County 5th District Magistrate Judge Mick Hodges.

Authorities
say Hailey Hodges’ husband, the son of a Democratic state lawmaker,
shot Hodges accidentally with a rifle following a day of hunting.

Ian
Malepeai is one of three children of Idaho Senate Minority Leader Edgar
Malepeai of Pocatello, who is retiring from the Legislature this year.

According
to sheriff’s reports, Malepeai was removing a 7 mm rifle from his
pickup truck just after 7 p.m. when it discharged, sending a bullet into
Hailey Hodges’ buttocks.Judge
Hodges said he spoke to his daughter, a Twin Falls High School
graduate, and she was doing well and was making jokes about the incident
soon afterward.

A 14-year-old Indianapolis boy was
accidentally gunned down when two older friends tried to scare him as a
prank, and one of them ended up shooting the teen in the neck with an
assault rifle.

Police say Nicholas King died at the scene of the shooting Tuesday night on the city's southeast side.

According
to detectives, 18-year-old Kevin Edwards brought a rifle into a home
and was allowing his 15-year-old step-brother to handle the weapon when
King knocked on the door in the 5800 block of La Fleur Street about 8pm.

Witnesses say the two ran to the door
hoping to spook King, and the 15-year-old pointed the weapon at the
teen and pulled the trigger. King, a freshman at Franklin Central High School, was pronounced dead at the scene despite paramedics’ efforts to save him.

Edwards told police that he had obtained the Romarm 7.62 assault-style
rifle on Craigslist, even though the site has a policy that prohibits
the sale of firearms.
The teens told investigators they did not know the gun was loaded.
Police are now trying to determine where the boy's parents were at the time of the shooting.

Shame on the parents for not supervising their teenage boys better than that. Shame on Craigslist for selling guns to kids. Shame on the gun-rights fanatics who keep saying accidental gun deaths are so few we don't have to worry about them.

Police here are investigating what appears to be an accidental shooting Friday night at a longtime Halloween happening that benefits the Rock Hall Volunteer Fire Company.

A 16-year-old Chestertown boy was struck in the lower leg while attending the Spook Walk.

The alleged shooter was someone who was helping with the Spook Walk. “He was using a real shotgun and live ammo as part of the character he was portraying,” Capt. William Dempsey said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

A 12-gauge shotgun, which Dempsey described as “a hunting weapon,” and other evidence were recovered. Dempsey said the boy was struck by a blast of 7.5 birdshot. He said the shooting did not appear to be malicious.

This was one of your lawful and responsible gun owners who thought it would be a good idea to use a real gun and keep it loaded during this event with the local kids.

The overly defensive and fanatical gun rights folks recently argued that most gun accidents only harm the gun owner. They also resist any suggestion that gun owners need to be better qualified to exercise their gun rights. The result is an increase in death and suffering. The gain, convenience for them.

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says your right to
self-defense in your own home should be limited to a cellphone "at your
bedside."

Stevens, 92, served on the Supreme Court for 35 years before retiring
in 2010. A liberal jurist, Stevens wrote the dissenting opinions on
both the 2008 Heller ruling and the 2010 McDonald decision, both of
which were 5-4 affirmations that the Second Amendment protects an
individual's civil right to keep and bear arms.

"Maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell
phone with a pre-dialed 911 in the number at your bedside and that might
provide you with a little better protection than a gun which you’re not
used to using,” he said to laughter, according to an Oct. 16 article by
Reuters. In addition to telling Americans to trade in their rifles
for cellphones, Stevens said the Heller and McDonald rulings leave room
for restrictions on the right to carry outside the home, bans on certain
styles of firearms, elimination of carry rights in "sensitive" places
and background-check requirements for private gun sales.

“The Second Amendment provides no obstacle to regulations prohibiting
the ownership or the use of the sorts of automatic weapons used in the
tragic multiple killings in Virginia, Colorado and Arizona in recent
years,” he said.

Stevens went on to say that the legal precedent for restricting gun
rights -- United States vs. Miller -- still stands, despite Heller and
McDonald rulings.

The 1939 Miller ruling limited "the scope of the Second Amendment to
the uses of arms that were related to military activities,” Stevens
said. “The Court did not overrule Miller. Instead it read Miller to say
only that the Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not
typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as
short-barreled shotguns."

This interpretation of Miller is flawed, most legal scholars contend,
and was strongly rebuked by Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion
in Heller. Scalia described Stevens' argument as "simply wrong" because
he "flatly misreads the historical record" of the Second Amendment.

"In both of his dissents, Justice Stevens contended that the right to
keep and bear arms was limited to state militia service," said Alan
Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms. "It was, and remains, an astonishing position on a
fundamental civil right."

The number of violent crimes reported to police decreased 3.8 percent
last year to 1.2 million, the fifth straight year of declines, the FBI
announced Monday.

Meanwhile, the total number of property crimes reported to law
enforcement agencies went down by 0.5 percent to 9 million, the ninth
consecutive year that figure has fallen.

The FBI’s data showed that the South accounted for 41.3
percent of violent crime, while the West accounted for 22.9 percent. The
Midwest claimed 19.5 percent of the cases and the Northeast, 16.2
percent.

This is one of their fundamental misconceptions, the idea that more guns means less violence.

The proof of their fallacy is in the geographic breakdown. The South, which has a high concentration of gun ownership, accounts for 41% of the violent crime. The Northeast, which has a much lower concentration of gun ownership, accounts for only 16.2%.

Mr. Ryan also likes to challenge himself by shooting with his revolver.
“He likes hunting with a handgun,” Mr. Olcott said of his
brother-in-law. “He’ll carry his .357 in the stand -- in a holster --
and wait for a deer comes in range for a handgun, which is more like bow
range, 30 yards or closer,” said Mr. Olcott. “He’s shot a lot of deer
with his handgun. He really likes that.”

Did you get that? They're talking about the "challenge" of sitting in a tree stand and waiting for a deer to come into handgun range. Now, to me that's sick behavior.

The failure in Indiana when this kind of thing happens is that the owner of the gun is not arrested. Every time a kid does something stupid with a gun, an adult should be held accountable. 14-year-olds should not have unsupervised access to guns.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The gun-rights crowd love to say that Prohibition of alcohol didn't work, why do we think gun control will. They say this in a condescending way, as if everyone is stupid but them. They often compare suggestions for common sense gun control laws to the War on Drugs. People still get heroin and cocaine, don't they? They repeat these things in various ways, over and over again, picking them up from one another, but I wonder if any of them ever stopped to consider what they're really saying and how nonsensical it is.

If we said the solution to gun violence is to make civilian ownership of guns illegal, no exceptions, and to confiscate all the guns out there to have them destroyed, then they would have a valid comparison. Then they could say, Prohibition failed and so would your attempts to eliminate guns. Then they could say, the War on Drugs is a dismal failure, so would your attempts to eliminate guns be. That would make sense.

But, we don't say civilian gun ownership should be illegal and they should all be confiscated and destroyed, do we?

I believe these bumbling attempts at denying the obvious are evidence that the gun-rights folks are losing the argument. They try to make up for that in numbers and repetition and with these bizarre arguments, but they're losing.

What Democrats usually ignore is the deviousness with which President
Obama, a consistent anti-gun advocate, plans to assault our Second
Amendment rights.

By winning re-election Obama will have the freedom to bypass Congress
without that nagging problem of being responsible to American voters. He
can simply impose restrictive executive firearms orders.

Historically, at least two things immediately occur whenever legitimate
governments fall to despots — guns are confiscated and voting is
eliminated. We yet have a few days to prevent that from happening, but
only a few days.

We often hear this kind of nonsense, but I'm wondering, how can a democratically conducted presidential election ever be confused with a "legitimate government falling to despots?"

Are the gun-rights folks so infantile that when they disagree with someone's politics they resort to calling them names?

Another oddity in their continual bashing of the possibility of gun confiscations is this. Did England and Australia become tyrannical? Did they do away with voting? Have they begun to round up their undesirables into concentration camps?

No, of course not. So, even if the unthinkable happens in the US and the 2nd Amendment is abolished or eliminated, and all the guns are rounded up and destroyed, tyranny would not follow. The Republic would endure. Only the ego maniacal gun-rights fanatics think it all depends on them.

A 28-year-old Redding man was arrested early Sunday in the shooting death of his friend, even though he didn't fire a gun.

The victim was shot and killed early Sunday morning when his friend
stirred a confrontation while looking for his ex-girlfriend in Shasta
Lake, Shasta County sheriff's officials said.

But authorities make no secret they believe it was that friend, William Roy Thietje, who caused the death — not the shooter.

Thietje, 28, was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter
and felony assault after he allegedly rammed his van into another parked
car in a fit of anger while looking for an ex-girlfriend. That action,
deputies said, prompted a homeowner in the area to shoot at the van to
stop Thietje from hitting a nearby pedestrian.

"The actions by William Thietje caused the death of his friend," according to a sheriff's office news release.

I find it hard to believe that a gun owner who intervenes by "shooting at the van" is considered within his rights while the driver of that van is blamed for the killing the gun owner did.

I'm always suspicious when gun owners shoot at vehicles to stop them from running people over. That's the kind of thing Bruce Willis does in the movies. In real life, it amounts to out-of-control behavior motivated by rage or outrage.

The 10-year-old son of a neo-Nazi leader told his younger sister that
he planned to shoot their father, then a day later took a gun from his
parents’ bedroom and fired one bullet into his father’s head as he slept
on a couch, a prosecutor alleged Tuesday.

The boy’s father, Jeff Hall, was an out-of-work plumber who as
regional leader of the National Socialist Movement headed rallies at a
synagogue and a day labor site.

In opening statements at the murder trial, Riverside County prosecutor
Michael Soccio dismissed the notion that Hall’s neo-Nazi beliefs
contributed to his son’s behavior, as the defense maintains, and instead
said the boy, now 12, was a violent child who had been kicked out of
every school he attended.

Defense attorney Matthew Hardy countered in his opening statement
that his client had grown up in an abusive and violent environment and
was conditioned to believe it was right to kill people who were a
threat.

Hall taught his son to shoot guns, took him to neo-Nazi
rallies and once to the Mexican border to teach him how to “make sure he
knew what to do to protect this place from the Mexicans,” Hardy said.

“If you were going to create a monster, if you were going to create a
killer, what would you do?” he said. “You’d put him in a house where
there’s domestic violence, child abuse, racism.”

Hardy also
claimed the boy’s stepmother Krista McCary, who is expected to testify,
goaded the boy into killing Hall because Hall was planning to leave her
for another woman. Hall sent her text messages on the night he was shot
saying he would divorce her, Hardy said.

Fortunately for the boy he lives in California, a civilized state, where juvenile crimes are handled in juvenile court. It's only too bad that spending the rest of his youth in a maximum security facility will only make him worse. I don't see much hope for him.

The gun was unsecured in the bedroom. Do you think that was a factor? I do.

An
18-year-old Florence man was arrested Monday morning after he fired a
shotgun in his apartment, injuring a neighbor on the other side of the
wall.

Fabian
Frost, 18, of 304 Royal St., is charged with discharging a firearm into
a dwelling and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in
connection with an incident that happened about 7:30 a.m. Monday,
Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

It
appears Frost accidentally fired the shotgun, but the bullet went
through the wall of the apartment and pellets from the ammunition struck
a neighbor who was lying on a couch on the other side of the wall,
Raines said.

I'm sure his race had nothing to do with the arrest, not in South Carolina.

Police responded to 15 Devon Ave. around
midnight Friday after a report of a domestic disturbance involving a
shot fired from a gun, according to a statement released by police on
Saturday night.

According to the release, officers arrived on the
scene to find the altercation over and John “Jay” Swallow, a sergeant
with the Manchester Police Department, outside on the sidewalk.Police
said the victim had been arguing with Swallow, who left the room and
returned with a silver Ruger handgun, which he pointed at the victim.
According to the victim, he then pointed the gun at a dog in the room,
stating he was going to kill the animal.

“The victim asked Swallow to leave, but when he refused, the victim
pushed past him and went to the neighbor’s house. As the victim was
walking outside, a single gunshot was heard inside the house.

Swallow
told officers that the gun had accidentally discharged while he was en
route to put it away.”

Officers seized weapons from the home,
including 16 handguns, 11 rifles, eight shotguns, a large amount of
ammunition and four samurai swords.

According to Beverly police,
Swallow is charged with assault and battery, assault with a dangerous
weapon, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, witness
intimidation, and three firearms security violations.

How much you wanna bet he pleas it down enough to keep his job and guns?

The
man was on his way to the hospital at about 1:50 a.m. when he called
authorities to report the incident, Sgt. Jim Kringlie said. Two other
people were home at the time of the accidental shooting in the 2200
block of 57th Avenue South, but they were not injured.

The pistol was a .40-caliber Glock similar to what police carry, Kringlie said.

“To disassemble it, you do have to pull the trigger, but you’re supposed to empty it first,” he said.

While it’s illegal to discharge a firearm within city limits, police are not recommending prosecution, Kringlie said.

Total nonchalance. Why would they want to charge a guy for proving he's an irresponsible and dangerous gun owner? That might prevent his killing someone next time he forgets there's one in the chamber.

My opinion is this is absolutely unacceptable. The pro-gun crowd like to downplay the personal responsibility in these cases because they what the same tolerance themselves when they do something stupid. It's wrong. Gun owners should he held to a higher standard that does not allow for "accidents." One strike your out is the answer because you can be sure these people we read about every day are not making their very first mistake ever, and, unfortunately, the way the general acceptance of their misbehavior is now, it won't be their last.

Accomack
County Sheriff Todd Godwin said authorities are uncertain whether she
shot herself or whether she was accidentally shot by her 11-year-old
brother.

An investigation is continuing into the accidental shooting.

Disgraceful nonchalance. Every story about a kid getting accidentally shot should include the arrest of the gun owner. It doesn't take a lengthy investigation to determine what went wrong in these cases.

Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden told the Idaho Statesman
that the first hunter was in Elmore County on Sunday when he rested his
rifle on his foot while he climbed into his truck. Dearden says the
rifle discharged, shooting the hunter in the toe.

Later Sunday,
three hunters near Atlanta were unloading their weapons when one of the
guns discharged, the bullet hitting one of them in the ankle. The men
were able to wave down Ada County Sheriff's deputies on Idaho Highway
21, and the man was taken to a hospital.

Dearden says hunters should remember to always treat their weapons as if they are loaded.

According to police reports, several people
were in the apartment at the time of the shooting. A 19-year-old woman
was seated holding the infant. At the same time, a 21-year-old man was
unloading a 9 mm pistol.

When the pistol accidentally discharged, it
struck the man in his left hand. It then struck the young woman in the
left hand before striking the baby in the face. The bullet continued on
and entered the residence next door, where it lodged in a piece of
furniture. No one was injured in the adjoining apartment.The investigation into this incident is continuing. No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made in this incident.

This is another disgraceful example of the nonchalance with which "accidents" are treated. That unnamed 21-year-old idiot should be behind bars and never allowed to legally touch a gun again.

"Criminals will always get guns," is one of the most touted little pieces of wisdom the gun-rights crowd has. They repeat it incessantly. If you propose gun restrictions in the hope of thwarting criminal gun abuse, they trot out the old tried and true dictum, "criminals will always get guns."

I suppose what they mean is "since criminals will always get guns no matter what gun control laws we try, we shouldn't try any at all." Of course, this is false for two reasons.

Number one, criminals will not ALWAYS get guns. If guns are harder to come by, many criminals will not make the extra effort necessary to find alternate means of acquiring them. With proper gun control laws in place, private sales with no background check will not be an option. Theft will be harder due to safe storage law enforcement. Straw purchasing will all but cease to exist with licensing and registration. What's left is buying from other criminals, but even this will be more difficult due to the other restrictions. Guns on the black market will become more scarce.
What we have to remember is that criminals are like everybody else, they seek the path of least resistance. If guns are harder to come by many will do without.

Number two, even if criminals would always be able to get guns anyway, that does not justify making it easier for them to do so.

One thing the pro-gun crowd likes to overlook is that almost every single gun used in crime in the US started out the lawful property of some gun owner. That's why, as much as they hate the idea, it makes sense that most gun control laws focus on them, the law abiding. Everyone knows that criminals won't obey laws, so by constraining gun owners to act more responsibly, access to guns by the bad guys is diminished.

I reject the other argument too which says all this would put undue hardship in those law-abiding gun owners. There would be additional requirements but I don't see them as excessive. Even Second Amendment adherents, who I think are completely wrong in their thinking, have to admit that "reasonable restrictions" are allowed. So says Justice Antonin Scalia, one of their own heroes.

Rod Stewart was forced to help a weapon-wielding carjacker steal his own Porsche after the criminal failed to start the vehicle.The British rocker, 67, was visiting a storage unit in Los Angeles
with his daughter, Kimberly, who was a young girl at the time, when he
was approached by the thug who demanded his keys.“He said, ‘Put your hands up’ and I gave him the keys,” he told Access Hollywood about the incident which took place 20-years-ago.Stewart was relieved to escape unscathed, however his ordeal wasn’t over. “He came back and said, ‘I can’t start the car,’ so at gunpoint, I
had to walk out on a side street with a gun in my back and get in the
car and start it for him. It started on a button.”

What would have happened if Rod had been carrying a gun for his own protection?I don't see it ending better for either the thief or the celebrity. Do you?

An employee at the Valparaiso branch of the Porter County Public
Library made a shocking discovery this week after cracking open a
donated book. The book, which carries the title "Outerbridge
Reach," was hollowed out and contained a historic-looking handgun,
according to Valparaiso police.The weapon was described by police as a gold, wooden handle, A.S.M. brand, .31-caliber, single shot, black powder gun.

Bishop,
18, had a history of mental illness, addiction to bath salts and
violence toward his mother, Imari Shibata, 49, a nursing assistant,
according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Shibata and
her boyfriend, Kelley Allen, also 49, a popular swim coach, were so
concerned for their safety they removed all the knives from their home
before Bishop returned in September from a 10-month stint at a rehab
center.

Startled by her son that night, Shibata looked at him and
the 12-gauge shotgun he bought through a friend, Pinellas Sheriff Bob
Gualtieri said Sunday. She asked her son what he was doing. Bishop
answered by pulling the trigger. He fired several times, reloaded,
then fired again — eight rounds total, killing his mother and her
boyfriend, the sheriff said. Then he called 911 and admitted to the
crime.

Deputies arrested Bishop on two counts of
first-degree murder.

Bishop
is unemployed and a diagnosed schizophrenic.

Bishop tried to strangle his mother in July 2011, authorities said
Sunday, and probation for that incident prevented him from being able to
buy a gun.

On July 26, 2011, according to Florida Department of
Law Enforcement records, Bishop was arrested on charges of obstructing
justice by tampering with a witness and domestic battery by
strangulation, both felonies. The counts were reduced to a lesser
battery charge, the records show, and he pleaded guilty. A judge
withheld adjudication and the teen was sentenced this year.

Bishop also had been held four times under the state's Baker Act, Gualtieri said.

A
few weeks ago, Bishop told an 18-year-old friend he needed a gun for
protection from local gangs. He gave the friend $279 he had made by
pawning electronic items, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Is that allowed? Can you buy a gun for a prohibited person as long as it's not a handgun? Can 18-year-olds do that?

He's being charged with 1st Degree Murder which is wrong. He's not mentally sound enough to be guilty of such a thing. The State of Florida should be charged with felony murder for making gun availability what it is. That's where this thing went wrong.

State police and Border Patrol agents were called to a party in Charleston about 1 a.m. Sunday regarding a shooting.

When police arrived, a crowd pushed 24-year-old Lee Sykes of
Charleston against a trooper’s cruiser, telling police he had shot
another Charleston man, Eric Baker, during a fight.

Officials say Baker was taken to North Country Hospital by his wife with a gunshot wound to the hip. Sykes was also treated for injuries to his face and hand from the fight and from the crowd that went to Baker’s aid.

Sykes is being held on $25,000 bail at the Northern State Correctional Facility on a charge of aggravated assault.

This is in gun friendly Vermont where according to the gun-rights folks this kind of thing just doesn't happen.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

In four states this November, voters will decide whether to institute
a constitutional amendment ensuring the “right to hunt and fish.” These
measures are being pushed by the National Rifle Association primarily
as a way of preemptively protecting hunters and gun owners from
“radical” animal rights groups.To most people, these amendments probably sound like a
solution without a problem. But the NRA has been warning voters and
state legislators that “radical” animal rights groups could come for
their guns and traps any day now. As the NRA’s legislative arm, the
NRA-ILA, wrote
on its blog, it’s working to “protect the citizens’ hunting heritage
from attacks initiated by well-funded anti-hunting extremists who have
assailed sportsmen throughout the country in recent years.”The
main “extremists” the NRA-ILA refers to are PETA and the Humane Society
of the United States (unrelated to the organization that runs local
animal shelters but often attacked as radical
for pushing for things such as crackdowns on puppy mills). But HSUS
says it has no plans to go after hunting and fishing rights, and it
called the Kentucky amendment “inconsequential and merely window
dressing.”

Aren't those the same scare tactics they use for gun rights in general? Yes, that's what the NRA is all about. And the insecure and frightened gun-rights activists love it. It plays right into their damaged psyches.

People who own guns are often motivated by the supposed empowerment they provide. The ones who find this most attractive are those who lack power in the first place. Of course this is all in their minds. Usually it's an imaginary lacking, an underlying fear which in their fantasy life is made complete with a gun.

Hunting is worse. it combines all the psychoses involved in gun ownership itself with the actual killing of animals. That's just sick. People who get off on killing animals have mental problems, in my opinion.

Now, none of this translates into banning guns or outlawing hunting. That's just hysterical exaggeration on the part of the gun owners and hunters. Gun control is about ensuring that folks who do decide to own guns, for whatever reason, are qualified to do so.

A 10-year-old girl was fatally injured in what appeared to be an accidental shooting at a Saxis Road residence Thursday night.

Deputies when they arrived at the residence found the girl had sustained a gunshot wound to the body. The victim was transported by ambulance to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., where she was pronounced dead.

Godwin said investigation into the shooting is continuing but it appears to have been accidental.

Did you get that? "BUT it appears to have been accidental," as if that makes it all right. That's one of the ways in which they diminish the responsibility of gun accidents. The other is they keep telling us how few they are, as if that makes it all right.

Tracy Joyce was riding through Winter Park on Friday afternoon when he saw someone drive by in his stolen blue Volvo. The
scenario ended when the teenager behind the wheel of the Volvo rammed
an unmarked police car and accidentally shot himself in the leg as he
tried to run away.He jumped from the car and ran
north toward the railroad tracks with officers in pursuit, leapt a hedge
and pulled a .44-caliber handgun from his waistband, according to the
report. The next thing officers heard was a pop.

Johnson had
accidentally shot himself in the right calf. He was booked into Orange
County Jail about 11:15 p.m. after being treated at a hospital.

The passenger in the Volvo, Gerald Lavert Jones, 18, also was arrested. He was not hurt.

It's a good thing they didn't shoot the kid. But, it's a bad thing that every teenage car thief has easy access to guns. Unfortunately, that's how it is in Florida these days. We can thank the gun-rights advocates and their gun lobby for that.